What Skills is IT Looking For This Year?

Curt Finch has more than two decades of software development and distributed workforce management experience. In 1997, Curt created the world's first internet-based timesheet application and the foundation for the current Journyx product offering. Curt has a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. His book, All Your Money, is available on Amazon.

A recent survey found that there are 10 skill sets that IT departments and companies are looking to add in 2010:

Project management

Security

Network administration

Virtualization – cloud

Business analysis

Business process improvement

Web development

Database management

Windows administration

Desktop support

In my opinion, project management makes a lot of sense because the Standish Group reports every year that 2/3 of IT projects fail. Knowing who is available to work on a project before you schedule it as well as what has been accomplished so far and how much is left goes a long way towards heading off disaster before it's too late. My own interactions with crowds at speeches I've given and through research I've conducted online (mostly on Linkedin) indicates that being cheeful and optimistic is a really big deal. Nobody is hiring sourpusses these days and they're also the first to be let go.